In 2005 the G8 promised to increase aid by $50 billion annually by 2010. This could pay for every child to go to school, save the lives of 500,000 women who die each year in pregnancy and childbirth, and help train the six million teachers and health workers urgently needed around the world. However, aid figures released this April show that global aid in 2006 has declined for the first time in ten years. Aid from the richest 22 countries fell by 5.1 per cent, compared with 2005.

Japanese aid fell by almost 10 per cent and it has now been overtaken by the UK as the second largest donor of aid after the USA. On the other hand, UK and Spain have announced welcome aid increases of 13 per cent and 20 per cent respectively. However, these increases include massive one-off debt cancellations to Iraq and Nigeria.

Increases are important because aid works. It has enabled the Tanzanian government to more than double its education budget over the last four years and substantially increase its health spending. The result is an extra 3.1 million children in primary school, infant mortality rates have been reduced by a third, and mortality rates of under-fives have fallen by almost a quarter.